The Daily Dig - ‘Plants Are Infrastructure Too’ Edition

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• Last month’s tragic crash on the DC Metro was caused by a failure of the train control system. Now it seems like those failures are rather common — they’ve been documented on 4 separate lines lately. (WaPo)
• New Yorkers, who have been hearing about the Second Ave subway since the JFK administration, will now get to savor the suspense for a while longer, as the MTA is pushing back the completion date for phase one to late 2016 (or summer 2017). But what’s a year or two among friends? (NYT and Second Ave Sagas)
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• The Cincinnati Metro is facing a $20 million deficit–commuter numbers have dropped as unemployment has risen–and is planning to slash services and jobs and possibly increase fares. (Cincy Inquirer)
• A leading figure in the California High Speed Rail project blasts the SF Examiner (not infrequently described as the worst newspaper in America) for the incredibly stupid assertion that it’s a “pork” project. Then the editors put a stupid headline on his piece. (SF Examiner)
• The cute little town of Tiburon, California, situated in the rich hippie mecca of Marin County, plans to photograph and record the license plate of everyone who passes through. Just for their records–in case you decide to go on a crime spree or something. Not that there’s actually much crime in Tiburon… (AP)
• “Most of us think of water and wastewater infrastructure as consisting of big pipes”–well, yes! But maybe it’s time to start thinking more broadly. Rain gardens and urban forests are “infrastructure” too: planners need to “think about the way water moves through plants, as opposed to [just] gutters and drains.” (Roll Call)
• Seattle’s new light rail system opened up over the weekend. 45,000 customers took a free ride on the 14-mile link and offered a broadly positive assessment. One of the more notable early riders? Jeff “The Dude” Dowd, the real-life model for the lead character in the Big Lebowski. (Seattle Times, AP)

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